Herring, even in this crappy market, commodities have done well.  Perhaps the reason you saw the pasta price go up, because perhaps flour may be worth more, but I'm just guessing. 

I had 2 commodity based positions in my portfolio, one a commodity fund, the other a Timber company and both made money during the recent shit-storm.   Go figure.  Fortunately I moved most everything else to Money Markets about 6 months ago...so it held, thankfully.   I think the market will continue to drop further, despite little blips of improvement along the way. 

Is Barilla that good?  I just grab anything that looks good, but my fav is the fresh-made soft stuff like Arthur's which cooks up in about 30 seconds.  I've made my own pasta and continue to do so on occasion, but it's a pain in the ass and the result is hardly worth making a mess out of the kitchen, which is what it does.

Now ...if you have any pasta sauce recipes..send 'em.  We can trade notes on that one.  I've got a few dandies.